Lion Air passenger flight crashed in Sumatra killing 188 passengers onboard

A Lion Air passenger flight from Jakarta to the city of Pangkal Pinang off the island of Sumatra, had crashed into the sea on Monday.

It has been confirmed by Yusuf Latif, a spokesman of Indonesia disaster agency that the flight had 188 passengers, including one child and two babies, and seven crew members.

The Agency has posted photos on Twitter of the debris including a crushed smartphone, books, bags and parts of the aircraft fuselage that had been collected by search and rescue vessels that have converged on the area.

The official adds that the plane lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff. A tugboat leaving the capital's port had seen the craft falling. The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, according to air tracking service Flight radar 24.

Flight JT610 took off around 6.20 a.m. and was due to have landed in the capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining hub at 7.20 a.m., the tracking service showed.

Lion Air Group is trying to collect all the information and data now.